Disposable feminine hygiene articles are conventionally packaged either in bulk quantities, or in individual packages. The latter have the advantage of allowing users to place one in a purse, handbag or automobile glove compartment, without the size problems created by the bulk package that contains quantities of the articles. Yet, the individual wrapping protects and conceals the article while so carried. This invention therefore, addresses the packaging of individual articles because of their convenience.
It is known to individually package disposable feminine hygiene articles, wherein a single cover sheet is wrapped around the article and sealed to itself optionally with a releasable tab provided with adhesive. Such packaging allows the user to open it by pulling on the tab, and to re-use the package by inserting a used version of the article inside the single cover sheet, wrapping it closed and re-sealing the tab.
As used herein, "disposable feminine hygiene articles" includes panty liners, sanitary napkins of all sizes, incontinence pads and the like, used by females.
A representative patent showing such packaging is U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,513.
Because the package is a single sheet wrapping, the packaging line therefor has been necessarily limited to a single lane process, wherein a continuous cover sheet is wrapped around single feminine hygiene articles placed sequentially on the continuous sheet. It has not been considered feasible to attempt to manufacture multiple lanes within a single continuous cover sheet, since by definition, any wrapping of that cover sheet does not produce a single wrapped article, only multiple ones. On the other hand, a single processing lane can be manufactured at only certain maximum speeds. To attain higher rates of productivity, multiple lane (across the width) processing is needed. Yet, as noted above, that is not feasible when the package comprises a single cover sheet wrapped around the single article.
Hence, prior to the invention there has been an unmet need to resolve the dilemma of using multi-lane processing but still wrapping only a single disposable feminine hygiene article at a time.
As used herein, "multi-lane package processing" means, a process and its incident apparatus wherein a plurality of, i.e. more than one, articles to be packaged are deposited side-by-side transverse to the direction they are being conveyed, and the packaging steps are carried out simultaneously on the plural articles, rather than sequentially as occurs in a single lane processing.